Texans notes: Jets starters to play entire first quarter

Updated 5:30 am, Monday, August 15, 2011

Wide receiver Plaxico Burress will not play tonight due to a sprained ankle.

Wide receiver Plaxico Burress will not play tonight due to a sprained ankle.

Photo: Joe Epstein, McClatchy-Tribune News Service

Texans notes: Jets starters to play entire first quarter

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Know thy foe

Unlike Gary Kubiak, Jets coach Rex Ryan said Saturday that his plan is for his starters to play the entire first quarter.

"I think that's what we'll do," he said.

Free-agent acquisition Plaxico Burress, who was out of the NFL for 28 months after serving a prison sentence for shooting himself in the leg in 2008, is out with a sprained ankle. Also out for the Jets are Pro Bowl centerNick Mangold (shoulder/neck) and right guard Brandon Moore, who was recently upgraded from the physically unable to perform list. He's recovering from a hip injury.

Same old Rex

He made his regular-season coaching debut in 2009 against the Texans, and Jets coach Rex Ryan was asked how much he has changed between then and now, with his team about to face the same opponent.

"I'm still passionate, still the same deal," he said. "I think I've learned a lot. I really lean on my coaching staff to help me, especially the veterans on our staff — the Mike Westhoffs, the Bob Suttons and Bill Callahans. I lean on those guys a great deal, but I still think you get that same passion and fire I felt that first week.

"That's still with me. I think it will be with me the rest of my life. When I lose that and I'm not the same person, it's time for me to get out of it. But I don't see that happening for another 20 years."

New long snapper

After Jon Weeks (ankle) fell victim to the Texans' training camp injury bug last week, the team needed some help/depth at long snapper.

Sunday, the Texans signed Scott Albritton, an undrafted rookie from - drum roll, please - Colorado State, where coach Gary Kubiak's son was a quarterback and also where seven players on the Texans roster played.

Albritton (6-3, 235) never flubbed a deep snap at Colorado State, going 232-of-232. He suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament five games into the 2010 season.

In the trenches

"They're going neck and neck," Kubiak said. "Brisiel will start the game but they'll play equally."

Brisiel, in his fourth season out of Colorado State, played in 12 games in 2010, starting nine. He was placed on injured reserve with a shoulder injury Dec. 15. Caldwell also played in 12 games in 2010, but he started seven.

Showtime arrives

Matt Schaubwon't be on the field long, and the coaches are excited to see whatMatt Leinart can do.

But what about rookie T.J. Yates, the fifth-round selection out of North Carolina?

"I think I'm doing a good job picking up (the offense) and being able to kind of take over the huddle and spit the plays out and go out there and kind of take command," Yates said last week.